The Puppet Master
by reapertmn3
Summary: Look into the eyes of the scythe wielding man Maxis, a meember of Laughing Coffin, it shows how he met them and his life taking out the targets that get requested of him by Poh, the guild leader. He follows the orders of the vice leader Seria as she has to make sure that he was worth the trouble of finding. Rated T for violence and some romance might appear later. First fanfiction.
1. Recruitment

**Author Notes**

This is an AU where the crusade was postponed to after Kirito and Asuna met Yui but before the level 75 was accomplished and Heathcliff was beaten.

The main character of this fanfic is my OC named Maxis who is a member of the red guild Laughing Coffin.

I'm noting that this is my first fanfic so please bear with me. I don't own SAO in any way; I only own the plot of my OC. This is also an AU where anything is possible and it doesn't really go with how they escaped SAO.

* * *

Maxis walked around the safe zone that Laughing Coffin had been using as a hideout and thought back to the day that he was recruited.

He was simply watching a group of four take on a larger type of monster.

It was a feline type monster that looked like a lion; it also had a snake tail so I'm guessing it was slightly based on a chimera.

As they finished slaying the beast I simply had to jump down and threaten them. "Hello there, little group. I was wondering if you would be so kind as to give me all your loot. If you don't want too I understand completely, _understand that you want me to kill you_" I said as I walked towards them.

The biggest of the group simply scoffed as he stepped forward "That is quite funny considering your gear; I don't even see a weapon on you" he said. He appeared to be the group tank as he was slow but had heavy armour on.

"Now now, you know what they say when you assume something, it makes an ass out of you and me" I said as I opened my inventory menu, I equipped the weapon 'bone scythe'. I swung it around before I yawned. "Gotta get this over quickly, nearly time for my nap" I said before yawning again.

"What is that weapon? I've never seen anyone using something like that before" said one of the slimmer group members.

The tank simply grabbed his large two handed axe and stood firmly "This is no time to get curious, he wants to kill us you fool" he said calmly as he charged at me.

I ignored the tank as I looked at my scythe "It's my lovely weapon; it just appeared in my blacksmith menu a while ago. Sadly it's one of many tricks I have" I said as I very simply dodged the swig from the tank.

"I don't care about that" said the tank as he brought his axe back for another swing.

"My gosh, how rude could you be Tank-san, I simply wanted your men to know something cool before heads roll" I said as I appeared behind him, my scythe at his throat. "By the way my speed is around the nineties in level and my light armour makes me way quicker than you" I whispered into his ears.

I jumped away as he growled, "This is your last chance to just give me your treasure" I lifter my hand and put up three fingers "I'll give you all three seconds before I change you all to particles" I said.

One of the four jumped at me and tried to hit me with his spear, I moved over slightly before I hit him in the face with the pole of my scythe. He fell back clutching his face.

His health decreased 5% but he stood up with a scowl on his face, along with the red spot where I hit him.

"Why do you think we will be defeated? We haven't all attacked yet, we are a group that means we work together unlike you who just fight alone, we have a better chance than you"

"You know what screw the countdown, I just don't care anymore. DIE!" said Maxis as he charged forward. In a swift motion he beheaded the spear user while the others just stood there wide eyed.

The body fell to the floor as the head flew high into the sky. I walked towards the others while I heard the body shatter into a million particles.

"Who's next?" I asked as I looked at the tank, a swordsman and a woman with a dagger. I grinned as I chose my next target.

The tank rushed towards me but I ran right past him with great speed. I had stopped in front of the swordsman "hello" I said as I swung my scythe at the man.

He blocked the blade of the scythe but I tilted the other end and hit him with the pole. He tumbled back as I caught him by the collar with my free hand. "Did I forget to mention that I can use one hand or two with the magnificent weapon?"

I dropped him back roughly "seeing as you have not yet disagreed to my offer I shall let you survive for now" I said as I turned to see the Tank.

He was telling the swordsman to stab me but the swordsman was motionless. He simply stood in a state of shock. What a smart kid.

I simply tilted my head at the Tank "Just out of curiosity, what is your name?" I asked. "Why should I answer you? If you hadn't realised, you're trying to kill me"

Maxis just giggled "Pah lease, all you have to do is drop your loot and you get to leave without any harm. If you continue to refuse me I will have to make it very unpleasant for you" I said simply.

I saw hesitation on his face but he shook his head to shove it aside. "What's to say that you won't just kill us when we are weak and defenceless?" the tank said.

"Can't you just trust the words of a little crazy man?" I asked quite childishly as I tilted my head.

"If you can get me to yellow health I will concede defeat" he shouted as he slowly charged at me again.

"But what if I killed you? Then I wouldn't get any loot" maxis said calmly before he slowly trod towards the big oath.

He activated the axe skill 'Bash' and turned the axe so that it wouldn't cut but it would deal blunt damage.

I ducked under his first swing but with unexpected speed he had turned and swung it again.

I bounced rather comically away from the tank as the axe had hit me.

My health dropped 10% and a slow smile crept up my face. "haha, so you can hit me" I giggled and wiped the blood off of my mouth.

"Yeah, and I plan to kill you for what you did to Sadeo" said the tank as he bellowed towards me.

I twirled the scythe around with my right hand while my left hand twitched and fidgeted a silent melody. "Come at me" I said.

"aaghhhhh" he bellowed as he swung his mighty axe with all of his might. I blocked with the pole of my scythe but I didn't block against the sharp edge. I blocked the handle of his axe and then pulled up forcefully, ripping the axe out of his hands.

It flew away from us as he fell to his knees. "I concede defeat" he said sadly as he opened his inventory and unequipped everything and dropped them on the ground in front of me.

"Gross. Put some clothes on before I go blind. Sheesh, even I'm not as cruel as to take your armour, I just want your cash and crystals"

He grabbed his clothes and re-equipped his armour. "Thank you, I guess" he said before he whispered under his breathe "Asshole". Maxis picked up his loot.

"Don't mention it good buddy, now I wonder what your friends are going to do" Maxis said as he looked towards the other two players.

The swordsman already had a big bag full of loot that he had dropped onto the floor, while the girl had not moved at all.

I walked over to the swordsman who was bowing his head in hopes that he didn't get sliced up like the spearman.

I put it all into my inventory as I turned to the girl "So girlie, what's it gonna be? Just hand me your items and I won't have to hurt you at all." I said nicely.

She just looked at me with contempt. She held her hand out as if to open the menu but ended up throwing some smoke bombs at me.

I swiped the smoke away with my hands. I coughed a bit before I opened my eyes, I looked to the spot where she was standing but she had seemed to run off.

As the tank and swordsman had just seen it they pleaded me not to kill them for this. Why would I kill them? I like to play chasing games.

I left the two males too give chase to the rogue woman. I found her in a small forest; she was surrounded by 2 males wearing black hoods, a lot like her own.

One of the males had red eyes and had a symbol that looked an awful lot like the KoB, he also had a small thin sword in his hands but it didn't have an edge, the other was wearing complete black and had a little dagger in his hands.

I jumped down and landed soundly on the ground with a little thud, I looked at the two males before I looked back to the woman "You are such a nice girl, you have given me two more playmates" I said with a large grin on my face.

All three pulled their hoods lower to reveal their faces. "Are you the one known as 'Maxis – the puppet master'?" asked the female.

I tilted my head at the question. "Yeah, he and I are one and the same" I said, wondering why they wanted to know. "Seeing as you all seem to know me, might I have your names?" I asked rather curtly.

The male with red eyes simply said two words "Laughing Coffin"

I laughed, this was getting good. "And what would an infamous guild like yourselves want with me?" I asked though I had a sneaking suspicion.

"We want you to join us" said the female "Poh has asked personally for you to be obtained" said the man in black, who I was guessing was 'Johnny Black' I just kinda trod over to them casually, "Why does the big boss want me so badly?" I asked.

"Unknown" said the female quietly, she sure didn't talk much. "This is getting interesting, now for the main question. Do you want to take me kicking and screaming or simply travel with you?" I asked with a little snicker.

"We have been told that you are not a target. We may need to paralyse you just in case though" said Johnny Black.

I threw my arms out wide as if about to embrace someone and said with glee "Then do it, I wish to meet your boss anyway" I said, chuckling away to myself.

"He agreed easily enough" said the red eyed man who I assumed was 'Red Eyed Xaxa'. "Just do it Johnny" said the lady. "Yes ma'am" said Johnny as he threw his dagger at me.

I fell to the floor paralysed but I didn't care. What I wanted to know was the identity of the lady that ordered the right hand men of Poh's around.

"Pick him up. We have to get back to Poh before he gets 'The Mate Chopper' out and comes himself" Said the lady with urgency in her voice.

Johnny walked over to me and grabbed me roughly before he grabbed out a teleportation crystal. He held it high with his right hand while his left held me tightly. "Teleport, Midia" said Johnny as did the others.

We all felt a little floating sensation before we appeared in the large haunted castle of Midia. The castle was filled with ghost and other scary mods that made others wary of this place. We didn't appear at the entrance though, we teleported straight to the boss room.

This was a rather low level dungeon so the boss was easy to beat; it was also in time for Halloween.

It seems that the people of Laughing Coffin had made this there home. You could get a quest that could be completed as many times as you want that makes the boss come back to life for a little Halloween event. No one really did it because they didn't want to chance dying. The reward was actually one of the main materials for making my beautiful scythes.

I was carried to a room in the back by Xaxa and all of the other members snickered as he opened the door. I was not so gently placed on the floor of what looked like an armoury.

I was put down just in time as the paralysis had just worn off; I stood up and looked around. I saw a man standing back while a small man stood over an anvil thumping his forging hammer against a rather large cleaver. He stopped and timidly held the cleaver up to the man for inspecting. "It is very well done" said the man as he surveyed the cleaver. "Very good sir, now may I please be allowed to return back to my home" asked the small man fearfully.

"I'm afraid that you may have to find new accommodations, my men are staying at your house so that you don't run back" said the big man, he put the cleaver away before he thumped his hands together "Oh I know what you can do" said the man rather happily. The smaller man didn't seem to want to hear the man's idea as he started to run for the door. "You can die!" said the big man.

The smaller man tried to run but ended up thumping into me "Why hello there young man" I said as he bounced off and hit the floor.

"Sorry" he said as he got up and tried to run away again. "I don't think so" I said as I grabbed him by the collar.

"If the big guy wants you to die I'm more than willing to grant that wish" I said as I threw him back between me the man who I assumed to be Poh.

The smaller man equipped his mace and ran towards me. I dodged his swing and grabbed the small man around the neck. I asserted a little pressure in my arms and strangled the man to death.

I heard the lovely shatter as I turned to the bigger man.

"Maxis, at your service" I said as I bowed low.

"You must already know me for you to introduce yourself like that" said the big man. "Anyway because you had been considerate enough to introduce yourself so shall I" said the man as he spread his arm wide.

"I am Poh, welcome to my group of murderers, Laughing Coffin. I wish for you to take up my mark" said Poh as he pulled up his sleeve.

There was a symbol; it was a Western Coffin that was drawn in a manga style. The lid showed a mysterious smiling face, and the lid was slightly open. A white arm reached out from the darkness inside, waving at anyone it saw.

"So I'm being recruited into the infamous Laughing Coffin?" I said with a slight giggle. This was like a dream come true, I could kill anyone I wanted and I didn't have to worry about finding someplace to stay.

Poh just nodded, "That is right, I know more about your scythe skill so if you join us, every time we kill 'Vampire Lord Slayer' we will give you your precious Blood Stone that is needed to forge your scythes" said Poh.

This was good; I could make any level scythe if I had the right amount of Blood Stones.

I removed my cloak to show my muscular back, I pointed at it, "I will have my guild mark here" I said, most fitting because from now on they had my back.

He opened up his menu and sent me a request to join his guild 'Laughing Coffin' and I accepted his invite.

When you join a guild you can choose if you want to get the guild mark as a tattoo and where you want it.

I chose to get the symbol and I placed it on my back. From now on I was a member in Laughing Coffin.

"Seeing as you are new I shall give you a mission right now. This woman is your target" he sent me a picture of a beautiful lady with chestnut hair; she was wearing white clothes with red outlining them. "She is known as Asuna the Flash, vice chief or the KoB" he said, I smiled happily. She was one person that I already had my eyes on.

"Seria" he said to the lady that had accompanied me here "You shall go with him but do not interfere with his battle. Report to me when he has either killed her or has chosen to find different prey" "Yes my lord" she said as she bowed low.

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**Author Notes**

That is the end of my fist chapter, I'm really sorry about the quality because it was my first attempt at writing fanfic. For those of you who didn't like who I chose as his target I just say, wait for the next chapter. It has more surprises in store.

**Review Please**


	2. The Hunt

Puppet master chapter 2

**Author Notes**

I just wanted to inform everyone that they may see some familiar faces in this chapter. some are faces that no one really wants to see but i cant really leave them out of it. the other is someone everyone knows and loves.

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Maxis had just joined the fabled Laughing Coffin and he wanted to make Poh happy (aka not kill him) he had been stalking his target earlier that very day to see whether she had any certain patterns.

The lady had been travelling around her guilds headquarters in Grandum on floor fifty five. Being the vice commander of KoB it wouldn't be unusual to see her travelling to and from the guild base.

Her house was located on floor 61, Salemburg. I had seen a white haired man in the same colour uniform as Asuna waiting outside her house. He had his hair in a ponytail and wore an overly decorated broadsword on his back.

Thinking that he might interfere with my mission I waited until Asuna left before I confronted the man.

"Hello there, mister" I said to the man who was trying to be sneaky.

"Go away, can't you see that I have important matters to attend to" he said as he continued to watch Asuna walk through town. He didn't even look in my direction, what a tosser.

"By 'important matters' do you mean being a creepy stalker?" I said to him with a slight laugh at the end.

The man finally turned towards me, his face showed his fury as his eyes flashed with contempt. "I was told by my 'guild master'" he said rather oddly "to keep a constant eye on the sub leader of KoB. Now that you know what im doing, LEAVE" he growled the last word at me.

"If you have to keep her safe it would appear that we have come to a crossroads. I've been told to kill that nice lady you keep watching" I said matter-of-factly.

He continued to look at me as if I was a mad man. "I'm afraid I wasn't given the signal yet, so I can't let her die before that. It seems we may have to cross swords because I have to keep her alive until the allocated time" he said simply, as if talking about the weather and not someone's demise.

"That sure is a shame as I really didn't want to have to kill you, well if anyone questions it; I'll just say that I found a man stalking Mrs Flash with his sword out" I said as I drew my scythe.

"You're not only crazy but a massive asshole too, lucky me" he said sarcastically as he pulled out his large broadsword.

We lunged at each other but both weapons bounced harmlessly away from each other as we were still in a safe zone, "Well that just killed the blood thirsty mood that I had been trying to create" I said before I sat down to look up at him.

"You look familiar, have I ever tried to kill you before?" I asked as his face did seem familiar.

"No one that has tried to kill me has lived" said the man evily.

"Merciless, I could almost like you, you know, if you weren't a creepy stalker man who seems to like other people's targets" I said as I stretched my legs out and put my hands behind my head to lay down.

"You are a massive asshole, you know that?" the man asked as he stood tall.

"Yeah I get that a lot" I said with a grin.

He was going to say something when a shadow loomed over both of them.

We both looked up to see a dazzling beauty. She had long blonde hair that fell down into her long cloak. She had large purple eyes that lured one in, not to mention she had curves in all the right places.

If she was anyone else, I probably would have tried but seeing as she was my momentary boss, I decided not to do it.

Seria looked down at us from her crouching point on top of the building. She stood and jumped down landing safely and oddly enough reminding me of a cat.

"Hey Miss Seria, this guy here is getting in my way. Can I just kill him when he leaves the safe zone?" I asked. At the same time as my comment I heard:

"My lady Seria, it is truly good to see you again, I have more to report with my mission to get intel on Asuna the Flash" said the man as he bowed.

The man and I simly stared at each other for a couple of seconds, before we both sighed. The man lifter his sleeves to reveal the symbol of the laughing coffin.

It was the exact same thing that I had just shown after I took off my cloak. I had the same thing on my back.

The image was a manga-like caricature of an ink-black coffin. A mouth and a pair of eyes formed a grin atop the coffin lid; the white bones of a skeletal arm reached out from inside. It was the guild symbol for Laughing Coffin.

"So this is the man that is here to take out The Flash?" the man asked, he didn't seem too impressed with me.

"Yes Kuradeel, you are you give him all of the information that you have acquired. Failure to comply will result in 'disciplinary action' against you." Seria said as she barely looked at him.

"Kuradeel? What kind of lame username is that?" I said while I laughed aloud.

Seria looked down to me with a slight smile on her face "You need to be nicer to him lest he tries to kill you at HQ, you are comrades and even though we kill people for a living we have to help our own Maxis"

"Maxis, why does that sound so familiar?" mused Kuradeel. "Ah" he exclaimed as he opened his menu.

What he pulled out of his inventory was a piece of parchment; it was a detailed picture of Maxis. Though it only showed his face, it didn't have much of it, my cloak was covering most of my face, but my hair hung low before my eyes. A large smile covered my face as my eyes showed pure happiness, and a bit of insanity.

Below the picture read the words 'Maxis – The Puppet Master' beside the name it had 1000K next to it. I grabbed the picture before I smiled happily. "Wow, I never thought that I would get a bounty, I didn't even know they had these in Aincrad" I said as I put the parchment into my own inventory. "Who knew that would happen after killing a couple of people?" I said as I looked up in thought.

"Just how many people did you kill?" Kuradeel asked. I started counting down on my fingers but quickly gave up. "Something around thirty five number" I said.

"You've killed around thirty five people?" Kuradeel asked incredulously. "Yeah" I said, wondering why he sounded so surprised.

Seria stood between us to stop our conversations. "This is pointless; we need the information quickly if we are to kill the lady" "I apologize my lady, I had no intention of not fulfilling my duty" Kuradeel said, sounding rather frightened.

It had me wondering about whom this woman was that even the elite of Laughing Coffin followed fearfully. I didn't have time to ponder this as Kuradeel started sharing all of the information with us.

Apparently she had just had dinner with The Black Swordsman. He was widely known as a Beater, and someone that solo's the front lines.

I shivered in anticipation as I thought of engaging him in combat. Seria must have noticed as she said "He is not your target here, Poh wants him alive for now"

"That just sucks" I pouted. Kuradeel looked at me as if crazy for acting this way in front of the lady.

"Don't worry, he will be a target so just hold on to your hope of battling him" she said somehow encouraging me.

Kuradeel looked even more shocked as she had made someone feel better about something.

She left us alone after she had acquired her information. "What is your connection to the lady?" Kuradeel asked hoping that she wasn't close by.

"She was told to keep an eye on me by Poh, that's all. Why are you so curious?" I asked him.

He just shook his head at me "When I first join LC I was entranced by her beauty, I was gonna ask her out, you know a date but with killing people. Before I got the chance another one had gone up and asked her out. Seeing as we are in a dungeon and not a safe zone she quickly pulled out her dagger and stabbed him in the throat. She pulled the dagger out before she very simply said 'no thank you' it kinda ruined any chance I had of asking her out" Kuradeel said with a small frown.

That would suck, if I could actually care about anything I might feel sad for him, but as it was I simply stood and laughed "That must have sucked haha, I wouldn't know how you feel though, because the only thing that I lust over is blood" I said before I left him sitting there.

I turned to see him look around and quickly run in the direction that he had seen Asuna walk away too.

I had just started walking away when I had a thought. If she was spending some time with the beater than she must have gone to the town portal to head to floor 74, which was in fact the furthest the clearers have gotten too so far.

I pulled out one of the teleportation crystals I got from stealing, held it up high and shouted "teleport, Kambet"( got the name off of the anime). Everything around me shifted and pixelated before I entered the latest city.

As I walked away from the town portal three things happened.  
1) I was seen by some people that recognised my poster; they came sauntering over to me before they started talking about fighting out of the safe zone.  
2) I really couldn't have cared less about them.  
3) I saw Kuradeel arguing with the black swordsman Kirito. He had challenged him to a duel, he was beaten mercilessly and sadly it was only the sword that was sliced in two and not the man himself.

I shook my head as he made a scene and teleported back to Grandum with defeat hanging over his head.

I simply watched as Kirito and Asuna left towards the clearing floors. I started following them only to be followed myself by the other group.

Seeing as I knew the destination of my prey I simply stopped following them and turned around.

What I saw was what I expected to see, a five fools that needed to be put down. The leader of the group was a man with a blue bandana around his mouth, he had black dragon on the back of his blue shirt, guessing that was their guild I simply said "So you are from The Dragon Knights"

He didn't seem surprised; he looked as if he was expecting it "Yeah we all are, the second strongest guild. Are you afraid Puppet man?" he asked.

"Sadly I would be more scared of a starting floor mob, than I am of all of you" I said, speaking truly. Even though it was the first floor some of the monsters looked quite scary.

The leader pulled his sword out "I don't really care about your opinion, I just want col from your bounty" he shouted as he charged at me.

I wasn't even paying that much attention to him, "Did you guys even know they had wanted posters in Aincrad?" I asked the other men of the group.

They didn't answer my question as they all readied their weapons as well. "Rude" I said under my breathe as I held both my hands up as if to box.

"You're going to fight me unarmed? Are you mocking me?" said the leader as he sliced at me.

"Not intentionally" I said as I grabbed the blade before it could hit me. "I just figured it would be a waste to blemish my scythe on you guys" I said as I bent his sword.

The sword shattered into many pieces before I launched a few jabs towards the leader. He fell to the ground unconscious from the assault, the other four charged at me.

I moved quicker than any of them could see and unknowingly to them I had covered them in my string. They all turned to see me stand up straight. My hands started fidgeting and twitching as I started to play my melody. Soon my whole body had gotten into the moving motion and my arms moved as if orchestrating my own melody.

I watched as my strings tightened around their bodies, not causing pain but able to move them. I had them all stand up straight and look at me directly before I said "Who knew that you could equip fishing string, as handheld equipment?"

None answered as they were too busy trying to break the string, I just shook my head. "You know that this string is made for catching the biggest swimming creatures in Aincrad"

I started moving my arms and they all raised their weapons. I bent my arms inward and touched my shoulders with my hands, the blades that they had been holding up against their own necks inched closer to their throats before they killed themselves. They all shattered into many pieces before I pulled hard on the string. The string was wrapped all around my hand and looked like gloves.

"I wonder if I will ever find someone that can use their imagination" I said as I continued walking towards the dungeon.

I saw a group of six heading in the same direction; they were being led by a man with red bandana around his forehead, he also had a katana on his back.

He saw me and waved at me, he seemed a very trusting person. I waved back and jogged over "Hi there, are you heading to the dungeon?" I asked.

"Yeah, we thought we would gain some experience and then try to find the boss room" Said the man with the bandana. He stretched his hand out towards me and said "Names Klein" I shook his hand before introducing myself. "Hello Klein, my name is Maxis, it's nice to meet you" I said as we stopped shaking hands.

"It is also nice to meet you Maxis" said Klein happily. I looked at his men, they all seemed like nice people but they also seemed determined as well. "Mind if I join you? It might be too dangerous to go on my own today; I've heard reports of the monsters being stronger than usual lately" I asked.

"Well we don't really have enough space in our party, but you can still tag along with us. We share the loot when we are about to leave" Klein said.

"Ah that's very thoughtful of you" I said, giving a genuine smile. This might be an easy way to make some money; I won't kill these people as they seem like nice folk.

"Ok it's a deal, we shall clear together, just for today though as I have to see the family tomorrow" I said as I stretched my hand out.

"Family? If you don't mind me asking, where is your usual group?" he asked. "My group was attacked by a very high level ghost monster the other day; it just appeared out of nowhere. We really weren't expecting it and they got hurt. They were afraid because they had been so close to death that they stayed home. I thought someone's got to make the money or we can't live our happy lives. So here I am" I said.

The lies just felt so natural, I really like to keep other people wrong in anything that they think they might know about me.

"That's a real shame, but as long as no one died, they will get better" Klein said, trying to cheer me.

"Shall we?" I asked as I bowed low and pointed to the dungeon.

"Yeah, let's go everyone, if we can find the boss room our name will spread even further" said Klein as he walked toward the dungeon.

* * *

**Author Notes**

I just wanted to thank everyone who actually read this far, please leave critisism where it is needed. expect more characters that you may know from the series.

**Please Review**


	3. The Party

Puppet Master Chapter 3

Author notes

I'm sorry about this chapter; I thought that a somewhat calm one might help. By that I mean that this chapter is mellower later on in the chapter.

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Maxis didn't normally work in a party so the group that he was with use a lot of terms he didn't understand.

Oddly enough whenever anyone in the party was in danger I forgot what I was doing and helped them, I felt really weird whenever I had helped one of them; it was as if I was relieved that they were fine.

The group was influencing him but he didn't like it at all, the one with the username Klein always smiled at me whenever I saved one of his friends.

Because I didn't want anyone to think of my bounty I was only using hand to hand instead of my scythe. Thankfully it was a good way to level up my hand to hand skill.

When we had defeated a bunch of lizardmen and skeletons we started moving forward and looking for the boss room. The group was exhausted when we stumbled upon a large ghost type monster. It was harder to kill because it could only be hit with blessed or cursed weapons.

"Is this the ghost that attacked your party the other day?" asked Klein, I looked at him for a few seconds before it clicked. Earlier in the day I had lied to the party telling them that my friends had been attacked by a high level ghost mob. This couldn't have gone better had I actually planned for it. "Yeah, our attacks passed right through it, it was weird" I said, lying even more.

The party started to attack it with completely synchronisation, thankfully my lie again turned out to be right as the weapons passed right through the ghost.

The ghost was rather frail and tall, it was a very pale lady in a tattered dress and she floated towards us with her dead eyes. She had chains around her wrists, at the other end of the chains she had small sickles, she started spinning and soon a large whirlwind of blades came towards us.

If the others where hit they would undoubtedly die, I equipped my scythe and ran between the group and the ghost. Everyone's eyes widened as I skilfully parried every strike.

Because of the material that was used to make the scythe's it was a cursed weapon and could affect players even after I had left. I was attacking the banshee before she could attack and I had taken her health down to 70%, it was way harder than fighting a normal players.

The banshee opened her mouth and shrieked; we covered our ears as splitting pain exploded through our skulls. She slowly floated toward us as we still couldn't calm the pain in our skulls.

The banshee threw her sickles at Klein but I had forced myself in front of it. I was knocked past Klein and I had let go of my scythe. My health drained down to the red.

My vision clouded as I was lost in total bliss, I had never before felt such fear, and it was intoxicating as every single nerve in my body was telling me to run away from this ghost. If I left the others they would surely die. Sadly I had grown rather attached to them.

I ran at the banshee as I started to unroll the fishing string from my fingers, I punched at the banshee but my hand passed right through it. I dodged its sickles while I quickly scrolled through my inventory and equipped another scythe as my left handed weapon. Because of all of the erratic movement, my strings had been able to wrap around my other scythe.

I pulled my hand back quickly and the scythe came towards me. The banshee was preparing another rally of attacks with her sickles. The scythe landed in my right hand as my other materialised in my left hand.

Because of the option to use either one or both hands to hold the scythe you could get past the system like this. I blocked all of the attacks rather easily before I started my own assault.

The banshee screamed in pain as my blades made short work of the ghost. I dropped to my knees as I was exhausted. The others came over to me hesitantly before Klein clapped me on the back. "That was amazing, I never knew that duel wielding was a skill" he said. "It isn't, I can just momentarily override the system because I can use one or two hands to hold the scythe. Apparently Kayaba Akihiko hadn't planned for something like this to happen" I said wearily.

I didn't like anyone knowing about what I could do. I had shown the group something that they would never forget. Going along with the lie I cheerfully said "Well now that the ghost is dead I can finally return back to my friends with the good news. Can you guys please not tell anyone about this?" I asked.

Klein looked back to his friends before he nodded and said "don't worry we won't tell anyone about this. I doubt that they would believe us anyway haha"

I laughed to because it was actually fun to be with them. I looked at the time in the right corner of my hud before I quickly stood up "Sorry everyone but I have somewhere to be, I hope that we meet again someday" I said as I quickly ran towards the entrance to the dungeon.

I stopped before leaving and turned back "Don't tell anyone about what just happened Seria" I said as I looked towards the beautiful lady that was my boss for the moment.

She tilted her head curiously "Did you just tell me what to do?" she said with a frown on her face. "Yeah I did, I don't care who you are, I don't want the others in the guild to know that I'm not completely bloodthirsty." I said as I sat down.

Seeing as it was the entrance to the dungeon no monsters spawned in this little safe zone. She walked over to me; she held my face in her palm as I felt something cold up against my throat.

"I don't take orders from anyone, but because you showed such fearlessness I won't tell anyone" she said as she pulled the dagger away from my throat. "Are we clear?" she asked. "Yeah, thanks by the way" I said feeling something odd arising from inside himself.

He felt like he did when he was with the other group, he felt like he could trust this lady, even though she was cold blooded, she also seemed to hide some sadness deep inside.

"Don't mention it" she said, "Where has your target gone off to?" she asked. "I don't know I was going to use that group to kill most of the mobs and then I would simply kill them, but as you can see they did something to me" I said.

"It's called having emotions, everyone has them, no matter how crazy they are" Seria said as she sat down next to me.

I didn't really care what people called it, it just didn't feel right, it made me feel something aside from the thrill of killing.

"How can I get rid of these emotions?" I asked her, she simply looked hard at me. "You can't, the only way to lose them is complete betrayal, and you don't want that" she said sadly.

As I was unsure of what to do I simply placed my arm awkwardly around her back. She tensed before she slowly relaxed. "Maxis" "Yeah?" I asked as I looked at her. "This is really awkward" she said.

I stood up and laughed, "Haha, sorry about that, I was trying to…what's the word…comfort you, I guess" I said before I looked back down to her, I saw something in her eyes that I didn't understand. "Thanks, it didn't really work but the effort was appreciated" she said before she all stood up.

She started heading towards the entrance as she said "Let's go find an inn to rest in for the night" I just rubbed my head against the back of my head nervously "Yeah… I can't really do that, weren't you watching when I killed those five guys before?" I asked.

If you were a red character you couldn't really walk around town normally, seeing as my sneak skill was mastered I could hide from everyone but if I interacted with any NPC's I would be attacked by all of the guards in town.

"Actually you only killed four of them, it was quite fun to watch but you missed one. You knocked him out with your hand to hand but didn't kill him. Don't worry though; I made sure that he didn't wake back up. I lured some mods to him so that I wouldn't go red" she said.

I was glad that I could still help out though. I had brought a house before I went red so that I would have somewhere to return too. "Follow me" I said as I pulled out a teleport crystal. "Teleport, Jurdenhelm"

I felt my body break apart and I always wondered if that was what it felt like to die in this game. I had successfully teleported to the city of fishermen, Jurdenhelm. It was a nice little city on floor twelve. It was where I came to get all of the highest grade fishing string used for my deathly melody.

As I didn't talk to any NPC's no one really noticed me and Seria walking casually through the town. We left the town and headed to the lovely blue lakes that surrounded the town.

We passed through a clearing to see a little small cottage, it was hidden so well that you wouldn't find it if you didn't know about it. I had gotten the information from Argo the Rat, she was an information dealer that I had the pleasure of getting some information from. She told me of a little cottage that few knew about. She gave me the information I needed and she didn't want to know why I wanted the house.

We had more meetings after that as I had gotten information and given some in turn.

Seria looked at the cottage before she said "That's a nice little hideout you have here" "Thanks" I said as I pulled the key out of my inventory.

I unlocked the door to find my home as I had left it. The house was a lot bigger on the inside then it looked from the outside. It had most of the rooms underground as if to be a hideout.

She looked around before she looked back at me "I was expecting this place to be a big dump but turns out everything is in a place appropriate for it" she said.

I didn't know whether to be happy that she complimented me or rather sad that she insulted me, I just voted on being gentlemanly like I normally am around women. "If you would follow me, I will show you to your room" I said as I bowed low.

She patted me on the back gently before I got up and started moving through the house. Seeing as most of it was underground I had a large hidden elevator to take me below.

The underground of the house was large and it had its own training area, forge, large bath and a chest to put my stuff in, all of these in different rooms. All of those rooms extended out of a large square room, the room had a large bed up against the far side of the wall.

It wasn't that personalised as I didn't spend much time here. "You can use the bed, I have something to do" I said as I walked towards the storage room and put all of the materials in my inventory. I walked towards the forge and spent the rest of the night forging and crafting new weapons and light armour for myself and my new house guest.

We stayed like this for about a week and a half as we prepared to take the target out, I was making a new cloak for her, I was making sure it was tough yet light so that it wouldn't hinder her at all.

I was so focused on sewing the new black cloak that I didn't notice that the lady had come into the forgery and had been silently watching me. "You are very focused" she said as I had just finished sewing up the cloak. "Thank you" I said, "I just have to refine this string so that it is strong enough and then I will continue my mission" I said as I was strengthening the long string in my hand.

"No need seeing as Laughing Coffin doesn't always take work; some of the members need to work on their more basic needs" she said as she moved closer to me. "Seeing as you buy all of that fishing line, do you fish?" she asked, I just looked at her before I stood up and walked towards the storage room. I motioned with my hand for her to follow me.

When we had made it to the storage room I took her to my favourite chest. I opened it to show her my prized possession, it was a large fishing rod made out of the strongest wood in the game. "I won this in a fishing competition, it is my guilty pleasure, besides killing" I said, it was the only other thing that I was good at.

Seria looked at me "Would you like to go fishing? It's been awhile but I've always liked fishing" she said. I nodded my head as I just noticed something. She was only young, barely seventeen. She seemed to give a bigger presence, but she must have been afraid and joined Laughing Coffin for one reason. She would rather be closed off and scary then be scared and alone.

I put my hand on her shoulders before I smiled genuinely "Sure. Let's go" I said as I grabbed the prized fishing pole and put it in my inventory.

We moved to the elevator and where about to go up when she grabbed my cloak gently "Don't tell anyone about this" she said as she buried her face into my cloak. I just gently held the back of her head as I rocked her back and forth. "don't worry, I've got your back, from now on neither of us are alone" I said before I moved back.

She looked at me with tear filled eyes, her eyes told me that she didn't want to be protected but she didn't want to be alone again. "I guess you're right, where stuck together now" she said with a chuckle.

She looked bothered by something "I just realised that I don't have a fishing rod, or any experience in this game" she said. "I guess we need to visit a friend of mine, he is the one that gives me all of my fishing gear" I said.

Ordinary players wouldn't be able to tell if they were red players if they weren't looking for it.

I took her into town, avoiding all of the guards and walked into the large brick building, the sign outside read 'Nishida's gear'. "Nishida, are you here?" I called out, looking for my old acquaintance "Oh Maxis, is that you?" came a voice from at the back of the shop.

An old lady came out handling a lot of fishing gear, "Hello Merry" I said as I looked at her. She looked over at Seria before saying "Oh my Maxis, have you finally gotten yourself a girlfriend?" she said as she laughed. I just stood there unable to speak. "No, I'm just a friend of his. We were wondering where Nishida is because we wanted to buy some fishing gear." Seria said kindly.

The older lady looked up at me "Didn't he tell you? He was going to catch 'The Enormous Fish', he should have said something seeing as you enjoy fishing so much" that made me jump, "But that fish is too big, what if something happened to him? But what if he caught it? This is big news, thanks Merry" I said as I grabbed Seria's arm and rushed over to the large lake.

She was so overwhelmed by his hand on her arm that she didn't even notice when they had made it to the lake. "Seria, I'm sorry we couldn't get your gear today, but something amazing is gonna happen today" Maxis said with wonder in his voice.

Just what is this 'enormous fish' that he is so excited about?

"What is the enormous fish that Mr Nishida is trying to catch?" I asked Maxis. He looked down as if wondering how to explain when he said "It is a giant monster fish that has dragged countless fishing poles to the bottom of the lake. Mr Nishida has encountered it a couple of times, but he couldn't catch it, until now."

I looked towards all of the people watching and saw that most of them where elder men, two younger people stood out though, mostly because one was wearing all black clothes while the other was wearing a white cloak to cover herself. I tugged at Maxis' arm and pointed to the couple "Maxis, I think you should see who is here." Maxis looked at the two of them before he grabbed my hand gently and started walking over.

He got his fishing gear out before he came in contact with the two. "Finally some people around our own age" he said as he stood beside the black haired and clothed one. He held my hand gently but I wondered why he even came over here.

The black haired man looked to Maxis before he said "Hi there, sorry I didn't see you there" "no problem, I'm just happy to see a couple as young as you watching this event" Maxis said cheerfully. The black haired man that was Kirito said "Well actually Nishida is going to catch the fish in and I'm going to pull it up to the surface"

Maxis' faced saddened a bit "darn, I was hoping to be able to get a chance at this monster fish" he said sadly before he put his hand out to Kirito "Sorry for not introducing myself, I am Maxis" he said. "Kirito" the black clothed man said as he shook his hand. Asuna was watching me, before I also held my hand out to her, "Hello I'm Seria" "Asuna" she said as she shook my hand.

"Alright everyone, it's almost time for the main event, beforehand we are going to have a little fishing contest, if you want to sign up please come up and register your name" said a man that was standing on a makeshift stage.

I turned back to see Maxis and Kirito walking towards the front of the stage to sign up. "Sheesh, men" I heard to my side. I turned to see Asuna looking at me. I just nodded my head as I had thought the same thing.

"wanna get a seat so we can watch" I asked. "Sure" Asuna said.

* * *

Author notes

Even added Nishida and a little bit of Argo the rat, as I said earlier little things are different than the story line of the real thing. I didn't even mean to have the chapter ending like that, I knew that Maxis always liked fishing but when he headed into the shop I couldn't think of anyone better to own a fishing store than Nishida.


	4. The Contest

The Puppet Master chapter 4

Author notes

Sorry, this one won't have much violence in it, as I am exploring other areas of writing.

* * *

Maxis had just signed up for a fishing contest, it was for two reasons.  
1) Kirito – The Black Swordsman has joined the contest, he was hoping to get some information from him.  
2) He really liked fishing; it was what he liked aside from killing or making new equipment.

"Okay everyone; here are the rules for this contest. 1) You can use any equipment, string or bait that you want. 2) The person who gets the biggest amount of fish or the biggest fish doesn't win. The winner is the person that has caught the most in weight of all their fishes combined. 3) No paying Laughing Coffin to kill the person that beat you" The man laughed, everyone laughed. The only people that didn't laugh where Maxis, Kirito, his target Asuna The Flash and his boss and friend Seria, sub leader of Laughing Coffin.

Maxis looked to Kirito as they both equipped their poles, "You ready? This should be a fun contest, don't you agree Kirito-kun." Kirito nodded before they both readied their positions by the large blue lake where they would be fishing.

I turned to see Seria and I waved at her and smiled.

Why did that idiot have to wave at me like that? Asuna was now looking at me with a smile on her face. "Is he your boyfriend?" she asked with a giggle. "No he is my bodyguard, I have been told that Laughing Coffin wanted my head, so I needed to get some security" I told her, complete lies, but she would believe them.

Asuna looked at me with worry "Are you sure you two will be okay? Laughing Coffin isn't something that a single warrior can take on" she said. I just laughed "I would be more careful of whom you speak about. He uses odd techniques that not even Laughing Coffin would think about" I told her.

"Odd techniques" she whispered to herself "What kind of techniques?" she asked me. I just shook my head gently "Sorry, he doesn't like others to know about them, also the only reason I hired him is because he is another target and we look after each other" I said.

"Well my husband and I like to help people in need, let me add you to my friend list." She said as she opened her menu. A little alert popped up in front of my face and it read 'Asuna would like to add you as a friend'. I looked at it for a second before I clicked accept.

"Just watch out, Laughing Coffin aren't the only ones that use odd techniques, I've heard of a man that uses a scythe and strings from my husband's friend" I looked back at Maxis as his secret was out. "Was the man's name that told you Klein?" I asked Asuna. She just looked at me with wide eyes. "Yeah" she nodded her head "How did you know?" she asked me.

I leant in to whisper into her ears and said, "Maxis was on floor 74 and he went into the dungeon with Klein and his group, he told them not to tell anyone though, so if you can please keep this a secret I would most appreciate it" I told her. She nodded "I won't tell anyone don't worry, your secret is safe with me"

"Thanks" I said as I turned back to the fishing contest "I think we should watch Maxis and Kirito now, they look like they are having so much fun" I said.

I was having so much fun; I had already caught a bunch of fish and put them all into a big basket for everyone to see. I turned to see Kirito waiting for his line to tug. He looked bored. So far he hadn't caught a single thing yet. I leant over and told him my secret for success. "Kirito-kun if you want to catch anything in this lake you might want to use this bait" I said as I handed him a large spider. "For some reason the fish in this lake love large spiders" I said.

He nodded as he took the bait and equipped it to his rod, as soon as he threw it in, his line tugged. "Thanks Maxis" he said as he pulled up his rod. Now that he knew what to do, it would be more of a challenge for me.

"Time to have some fun" I said to kirito. I saw Nishida looking at us both happily, I waved him over. He had just walked over when I said "Hello Nishida-san, sorry I didn't see you earlier than this" he just shook his head "Yesterday I was going to send you a message to see if you wanted to go fishing, but I saw that you were busy making more equipment. I didn't want to bother you seeing as you always tell me about your adventures in dungeons, coincidently I ran into your friend here and he offered to help me take on the enormous fish" he said as he had happy tears in his eyes.

"Sorry Nishida-san, I had a houseguest so I had to make sure she had everything prepared. We were in the 74th dungeon just the other day, so we needed to make sure we had everything ready to go again" I told him.

"Sadly you might have to up your ante seeing as the 74th floors been cleared the other day" Kirito said as he looked at me.

"That's a shame, we really wanted to help on the front lines with the rest of the clearers" I said sadly.

"Well my wife and I are on a break right now, so want to go to the 75th dungeon when we are finished with this. I normally don't do this as I'm a solo player but my wife's protection comes first, and the more people there, means lower death rates for all of us" said Kirito.

"That sounds fine, I'll run the idea past Seria when we are finished here" I said.

"Now let's get back to this contest shall we" I said.

He nodded and the contest continued between us. We both caught tons of fish and before I knew it the contest was over.

"All contestants, please load your fish up here for inspection, we will decide the winner while the main event goes underway" said the instructor.

Kirito and I walked towards Seria and Asuna. "Good job, Maxis" was all I heard from Seria. "Thanks" I said to her before I turned to Kirito "That was fun wasn't it? We should have another contest sometime" I said to him, he simply nodded.

"Kirito, you'll never guess what. Maxis is the one that Klein told us about the other day in the 74th dungeon. He saved them all with his scythe, and strings. We should invite him over to dinner, they are also being targeted by Laughing Coffin, so they might need a place to stay" Asuna said.

I just froze; Klein had told them even after I had asked him to keep this a secret. "Yeah, I thought I told Klein not to tell anyone about that" I said quietly.

"Yeah he told us about this really awesome guy that saved him and his friends from a banshee" Kirito said, "Didn't think it was real though" he said, Asuna pulled his ear "That's not nice; Klein is your friend so you should be thanking Maxis for the help." Asuna said as she let go of his ear. "Thanks for saving Klein, I guess" Kirito said.

I was just too confused, he lied to me, I guess seeing as they are good friends it shouldn't matter, but he told someone my secret. "What else did he tell you two" I asked. "Well, he told us that you had faced the Banshee before and it had nearly killed some people in your party." I hardly remembered that lie, but I nodded my head anyway.

"Anyway, Maxis and Seria are interested in the front lines; Maxis told me that they want to help out too" Kirito told Asuna. She beamed "That sounds like a wonderful idea" she said as Seria looked at me. "That does sound like a good idea Maxis, but before that I think we should see this so called main event" Seria said as she looked towards the stage.

"Thank you everyone, we will now begin the main event, let's all give a hand to Nishida, who is going to catch the enormous fish" said the announcer as he gestured to Nishida. Seria clapped slowly while I was very enthusiastic about today. Asuna also clapped while Kirito moved closer to Nishida.

Nishida saw him and said "Thank you everyone, but I think you should also give a warm welcome to Kirito-kun who will be assisting me today." Everyone clapped for Kirito, Seria and I went along with it and tried to look as if we wished him good luck.

Nishida started by putting a large lizard as bait to attach to his rod, which he throw into the water, after a couple of seconds something large grabbed onto the bait and nearly pulled Nishida in, "Switch" I heard Kirito say as he grabbed the rod out of Nishida's hands.

He was pulled forward but he was pulling back, we all moved closer to the lake so that we could see the enormous fish, what we saw made everyone gulp and run back to cover.

The line snapped and Kirito fell backwards, he stood up before he ran closer to the lake to glare at the fish, just as he reached the edge of the lake it jumped out, he too gulped and ran back to us. "That wasn't fair" he said.

What came out of the lake was a large fish with legs, I didn't see a name over it but could tell it was a monster. It was running towards us and I was getting ready to equip my scythe, when Seria placed her hand on my arm "She is going" she said as she looked at Asuna, who already had her rapier equipped and was walking slowly to the large fish. It jumped forward to try and bite Asuna but she just sent countless strikes towards it. My eyes could hardly follow but I knew that it would be enough to kill it.

The fish shattered into pixels before disappearing, everyone rushed at Asuna with awe as they all knew who she was. Kirito looked at us and noticed that we weren't shocked. He walked toward us with his hand lazily on his hip. "Not surprised huh" he said. "We kinda guessed who you two were by your description and names" I said to Kirito.

"Is that why you wanted to go to the front lines with us?" he asked. I just shook my head, "You invited us, I only said that we wanted to go and help on the front lines, you're the one that invited us"

"I guess that i was worrying over nothing" he said. He looked as if he was thinking about something before he said "Why is Laughing Coffin after you anyway?" I looked to Seria and she nodded, as did I.

"It all started when we were in a dungeon, we were fighing a bunch of Orcs, we had finished the Orcs off easily but as we went to move on, a dagger came out and hit me, it wasn't a normal dagger though, it had been coated in paralysis poison" She said "When she went down I was scared, she helped me when we got trapped here, I turned in every direction but couldn't see anything, after a couple of seconds I saw three figures walking slowly towards us" I said.

"They were the three elite of Laughing Coffin, Poh, Red Eyed Xaxa and Johnny Black" Seria said. "I had no hope of fighting those three alone, I threw my strings in every direction and they got stuck. I picked up Seria and ran with all my might, but as I was running I heard the words 'We'll get you two, Maxis and Seria'" I said.

"That was a couple of months ago, and we have seen Laughing Coffin countless times, they seem to know where we are at all times" Seria said quietly.

"The only reason we have been able to escape is by using tricks, I can do many things with my strings, but I can't use them to kill" I said as I placed my hand reassuringly on Seria's shoulder.

"Sadly Maxis had to kill a green player, he became a red and can't even go into town without having to be very careful" Seria said sadly, she was as great at lying as I was, and she seemed to have the same idea's as me too.

"Did you know that anyone who has been targeted by Laughing Coffin gets their guild symbol branded onto their skin" I said as I revealed a bit of my back to him, Seria nodded as she pulled the neck of her top down to show the Laughing Coffin symbol on her shoulder.

"We have had many thoughts about this and we have come to the conclusion that they can somehow track us from this" Seria said with a sob, she was such a great actor.

Asuna came over after having been left alone by the crowd; she seemed to have heard everything. "Why don't you come and have dinner with us tonight? We can protect you" She said as she held Kirito's hand.

"Well I wouldn't want to impose" I said, Seria nodded in agreement. "Well I guess we should just go clearing in the dungeon tomorrow" Asuna said.

"Really? Thank you Asuna-san, we don't really want to go back into dungeons without a party but we can't stand being useless to the people that are hoping for the clearers to get us all home" Seria said happily.

"Anyway, it's getting late, so we should see Nishida-san about getting your fishing gear before we leave" I said to Seria. She looked at the stage before she quietly said "But the winner for the contest hasn't been called out yet. We should wait until after that to leave", seeing as she was my boss, I couldn't exactly say no.

"Okay, but do you want to see Nishida about your gear?" "We can also do that afterwards, I really want to know who won" she said with a smile.

"Then let's take a seat while the judges do their thing" I said as I sat down. Seria joined me, as did Asuna. Kirito just lay down and closed his eyes.

We talked about tons of things, Asuna told us about their AI daughter Yui, she wasn't really their daughter but they loved her none the less.

"We will now be presenting the winner, if your name is called please step forward to retrieve your prize, we will be calling them out from third place to first, so please be patient" said the announcer as he looked to Nishida.

"Seeing as this event wouldn't even be happening without Nishida-san we would like him to read out the names"

Nishida walked forward "I just want to thank everyone for being here today, now without further ado, I will now call out the three names" Nishida said as he fumbled with the envelope. He finally got it open and the first name he called out was "'Ladeon, The brick wall' please come up and collect your reward" Nishida said as a large man came up to the stage.

"Second place goes to Kirito-san, also known as The Black Swordsman, please come up here Kirito-san" Kirito walked up the stage while everyone cheered for him, he accepted his reward before he walked back to us.

"Now the winner of this contest is a long-time friend of mine, he also keeps me in business. Maxis, please come on up and grab your prize" I walked up and shook Nishida's hand "Thanks Nishida-san" I said as I accepted the prize. It was a long slender fishing rod, with silver words all over it.

I walked down from the stage before I walked over and shook Kirito's hand, "Good job, with coming second" I said honestly. "Same to you coming first" he said.

Seria gave me a slight smile before we waved at Kirito and Asuna, we walked over to Nishida. He waved at us, and congratulated me for coming first. "Actually, we came to get some fishing gear for Seria here" I said as I introduced the two of them.

He looked at her before he took a peek at me "Finally got yourself a girlfriend have you?" he said with a laugh. "That's not it, Nishida-san; Merry said the same thin though. She just hired me for protection" I said quickly.

"Anyway, you want to get some fishing gear?" he said to Seria. She nodded. "Okay, well come back to my shop tomorrow, I'll have my shop open again for business" he said, "Anyway I have to get back to Merry, she gets scary if I am gone for too long" he said as he waved at us.

"Shall we go back to your house and get some well-deserved sleep" Seria said as she looked at me.

"One second" I said as I opened up the trade window. "I want you to have this" I said as I handed her the fishing rod that I had just won. "I can't accept this" she said.

"Please, I want you to have it, this is the first time I have ever given a gift, and I want it to be something special to me, for someone special to me" I said. Seria blushed before she accepted the rod. "Thank you Maxis, this means a lot to me" she said. "Now shall we go home?" I asked as I help my elbow out for her.

* * *

Author note

Sorry if you wanted more violence or anything in the chapter, I seem to be going more along the lines of a romance in this chapter. Also I don't know what Maxis is going to do now that he has met his target and interacted with her.


	5. The change of plans

The Puppet Master chapter 5

**Author Notes**

I am sorry that this chapter took so long to come out, I haven't had a lot of time on my hands, I just wanted to thank you all for reading these so far, and I'm glad that you have. This chapter starts off in more of a romantic setting, but it goes back to being odd near the middle of the chapter.

Maxis and Seria had returned to Maxis' house in the woods, they had both left, being very excited about going fishing, it was only when they had returned that they realised that Seria hadn't actually done any fishing at all.

They would have to go fishing some other time as they had been invited to help clear the front lines with the lead group. They would be in a party with Kirito 'The Black Swordsman' and Asuna 'The Flash'.

They would observe the duo and try to gauge their attack strength and the system skills that they use most often, seeing as they were two of the strongest players in the game, we would have to be careful. Maxis also didn't really know if he would be able to kill Asuna or Kirito as he actually really liked them, which was weird for him.

Maxis hadn't been getting much sleep as he only had one bed throughout the entire house, tonight he knew that he would need all of the rest he could get, so he fell straight to the bed and slept silently.

Seria watched him as he slept, he was much more peaceful then most of the other members of Laughing Coffin, he seemed to be able to wash himself of any bad deed he had done. He also wasn't a brutish man that tried to force himself onto her; he actually seemed to be even newer to the romance life then myself.

As much as it sucked to say, Maxis had stolen my heart. He was so innocent and he played along very well with my lying games, people had bonded in Laughing Coffin and had formed a unit, he seemed to be the right one for me.

It was so nice of him to give me the fishing rod that he had just won in the contest. I searched through my inventory and found the fishing rod 'Enchanted Rod Of Binding'. I pulled the rod out and admired its slender form; it had beautiful silver letters all along it. It was too beautiful a gift to belong to me, but I'm glad that he had given it to me.

I put the rod away before I looked down at his lying figure, I just smiled before I lay next to him, I must have woken him up, because he shifted and said something between the lines of "Don't betray me" and "Don't trust me".

I awoke to my personal alarm clock going off and felt additional weight upon me. I look over to see Seria lying next to me, I couldn't help but take in her beauty, she truly was awe inspiring.

I slowly sat up before I left the room to go to the forging room; I did a quick check to see if all of our equipment was in good condition before I let my mind wonder to thoughts of the lady lying in my bed right now.

Before I knew what I was doing I started sewing a new cloak for her, it was blood red and reminded me of an old fairy tale, I imagined her long blond hair flowing underneath the red fabric. I placed it to the side as I went to check on my guest, I was quite alarmed to see that the bed was empty. I figured that she must have gone to have a little bit of relaxation in the spa room.

Water in this world was only pixelated and it didn't really give the feeling of water at all, still some people preferred to bath every now and again for some relaxation, I trudged over to the door and knocked gently "Seria, are you in there" I asked after a couple of seconds.

"Yeah, I'm in here, feel free to come in and join me if you'd like" she said. "No thanks" I said awkwardly. I stood by the door, contemplating her words, was she insinuating something there? I was lost in thought until I remembered that I had to make her some new daggers and boots and the like.

I made some daggers that would be light but pack a punch; I made some very durable black boots for her as well as some light, durable pants and some black greaves, gloves and a white shirt to wear under her cloak. I also made myself some light, durable pants and some black greaves, gloves, boots and a black shirt.

I had just finished my relaxing bath and had equipped all of my armour; I went to see if Maxis was in his usual hidey hole. I walked through the underground part of the house and arrived at the work room, it had everything that a craftsman might need, equipped with its very own worker.

I laughed as I had that though and saw Maxis placing some things in the chest. "Good morning" I said as he stood back up, he jumped and turned quickly. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you" I said with a chuckle.

"You didn't scare me, I'm just not used to having others in my home yet" he said. I walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Whatever you say" I said with a chuckle. "This couldn't be any better, this saves me the time of searching for you" he said as he pointed to the chest "I made some new gear for you" he said as he motioned me to open it.

I opened the chest to find a lovely red cloak, black pants, black greaves, gloves and boots and a white shirt. I checked the stats on them before I gasped; they were all purple coloured gear, which was some of the best. "You made all of these?" I asked shocked.

He nodded "I figured that we would need to wear the best gear we can get if we are going to the front lines" he said; I stepped onto my tiptoes and kissed him gently on the cheek "Thanks Maxis, these are lovely".

I quickly changed into my new gear and ran to find a mirror. For some reason I thought of little red riding hood, my blonde hair fell down my face and down onto the red fabric. I adored the new clothes he had made and I ran back over to him and hugged him tightly.

"You forgot these" he said as he held out a dagger and a bunch of throwing knives. I looked at the stats to see what they were, the daggers I had been using for ages paled in comparison to the new dagger he made for me. I looked to see the name 'Blood Rose' above the stat screen; I looked down at the blade to see a very detailed rose carved into it.

"Did you do this" I asked Maxis as I studied the roses shape. He nodded his head, "They say that when a person puts all of their feelings into forging they can make something wonderful" he said plainly. "I love roses, it must be fate that we met" I said.

I looked over at him and admired his appearance, it was hard to think that we were in a game, he was very tall and he had long black hair that fell in front of his eyes. He was wearing a black cloak that covered most of his body, from what I could see beneath the cloak he had black pants, shirt, greaves, gloves and boots. It seemed we were wearing the exact same except for the shirt and cloak.

Under the mass of black hair covering his face, he had a beautiful face, it was cute yet manly at the same time, he had small brown eyes that seemed to notice everything that happened around him, his mouth was in a constant frown, and the only time I had seen him smile was when he was killing, fishing or talking to me.

I was so perplexed by this man. "We should be meeting the others on the seventy fifth floor shortly, we should analyse the way they fight, and how they act together, we should not engage them in combat until we have observed all of their tactics" I said. He nodded "Then we should leave now. I don't wish to spend any time in a town that I have no knowledge of, especially when I am a red player, I'll wait outside of town and you can bring them to meet up with me" He said.

"Then let us go" I said as I pulled out a teleport crystal.

We arrived at the new city to see it was bustling with people; I hid my face with my cloak so that none would recognise me from my wanted poster. It was hard not to stand out when I was 6 foot 3. "I shall meet you outside by that gate" I said as I pointed to a large iron gate.

She nodded before I walked away and left her there. I could feel a tingling feeling in my back and I knew that I was being followed by someone. I walked out of the gate and took a little path through the trees. I stopped when I knew we wouldn't be seen by anyone and turned to find something that I didn't expect. It was the two elite of Laughing Coffin, Xaxa and Johnny black. They didn't look too happy.

"What can I do for ya?" I asked Xaxa looked straight at me and said "We need a report about what you have been doing all of this time, it has been a couple of weeks since we have given you this task and we need it done quickly" "Oh that, The lady will die quickly, I've made contact and she trusts me. I was going to get some information on how she fights today in this dungeon" I said casually. "Fine, just give us the information when you are done" Xaxa said again.

They started walking away when we all heard a voice, "Hey you two, long time no see" we all turned to see Kirito standing behind me. "Oh, it's just you" said Xaxa as he and Johnny Black continued walking away.

"You where after Asuna aren't you? She was the lady you were talking about isn't she?" Kirito asked. "No, I was talking about Seria, she is always on guard, if I attacked her when we alone, I'm sure she would kill me, I have to make sure I get her when she is distracted" I said, lying.

If Kirito believed me, he would probably take Seria and keep an eye on her, he might not trust her very much, but from what I've heard, Kirito helps anyone in need.

"Your despicable, I didn't want to believe it, but I knew I had seen your face before" Kirito said as he pulled out a piece of parchment. It was a picture of me, it had the words 'Maxis – The Puppet Master' next to it, it also had 1000K, which was my bounty.

"Did you even know we had those, I only knew about it a couple of days ago. By the way, didn't we have a good time when we were fishing?" I asked with a grin as I pulled out my scythe.

"I did have fun, I won't be happy when I have to tell Nishida-san about this. He told me a lot about you. He said you saved his life. Is that true or where you going to kill him too" said Kirito.

I glared at him, "He was my only friend" I said as I ran towards him with my scythe. He pulled out his black sword and stood ready.

"Then I'll tell him you died clearing the game" Kirito said as he parried my strike. "That's nice, you're a good guy" I said as I jumped back and threw my strings everywhere.

He jumped towards me but sliced through my strings, which was hard to believe because they were the strongest strings I could buy.

"So why did you save her that time, weren't you two in a party and Laughing Coffin came for you both?" kirito asked as he charged at me. "That was before, she saved me, and I would do anything to get her out of this game" I said, which I was starting to believe.

I dodged his sword and swept my feet under him to knock him over, he fell to the ground, I buried the blade next to Kirito's head "I'm not allowed to kill you, so I'll make my leave" I said as I jumped back, and quickly ran off.

I could only find Asuna; she said that Kirito had something to do quickly. I bought her over to the gate but Maxis wasn't there. I looked around for a couple of minutes but couldn't find anything.

I heard rustling in some bushes behind us and I drew my dagger, a man clad in black clothing jumped out, it was Kirito. "Oh thank god, it's just you. Have you seen Maxis?" I asked as he moved closer.

He just nodded simply "Yes, I've seen him. I don't think it's safe for you to be alone" he said to me. I looked at him worried. "What are you talking about? Where is Maxis?" I asked.

"Maxis is a member of Laughing Coffin" he said as he looked at me. How did they find out? "His target is you" he said as he moved closer to me.

What? That couldn't be possible. Maybe Maxis was using this as an excuse for me to get closer to Asuna without Kirito finding it odd. "Maxis would never try to kill me, he has protected me many times" I said, trying to continue the lie.

"That's what I find weird, I saw him speaking to Xaxa and Johnny Black. He was talking about how he would observe the targets attacks and tactics. That was when I stepped in" he said.

"But those are two of the strongest in Laughing Coffin, how did you survive?" I asked incredulously. "They didn't fight me, they just walked off, Maxis stayed though, and gave me some useful information. He said that he wasn't allowed to kill me, and he left just like that" Kirito said with a curious look on his face.

"So what do you want me to do? I can't even trust my friends, I have no one else I can turn too" Seria said as she cried crocodile tears. Asuna put her hands reassuringly on my shoulder as she looked at me with tender eyes "You can stay with us" she said.

I just blinked in astonishment, why would they be willing to go so far for a stranger. "Why would you help me, my best friend could have killed you, I'm sorry, this is all just too much for me to accept" I said as I looked down at the ground.

"We are helping you because that what we do, we help those that need it" Kirito said as he helped me up.

"It's not just because she's a lady is it?" Asuna asked Kirito. He just shook his head "No, it's not like that" he said.

These two made me feel uncomfortable; they were just so innocent, if they knew who I was, they'd never help me. They made me feel calm, as if I was safe here. I hated that feeling.

"What are we going to do?" I asked them as I considered when we would see Maxis again.

"We are still going to the dungeon, we'll just have one less party member" Kirito said as he added me to his party.

We started walking towards the dungeon and were soon fighting for our lives.

I watched them from a distance, making sure nothing happened to Seria, I wasn't even concentrating on learning Asuna's techniques and fighting style.

Whenever she was going to be attacked, I sent a little piece of string to block the attack for a second; she would notice the monster and quickly dispatch it. The party had no idea that I was here, if they knew I was here, they would probably attack and kill me.

I don't care about my life, but if I'm not here, who will protect Seria? I couldn't take the chance that someone might target her for having even the smallest connection to Laughing Coffin.

I would protect her no matter who I had to fight, "Don't worry, I'll be back to you soon, I just need to dispatch my target and everything can go back to how it was before" he whispered to the wind quietly.

Kirito twitched and looked in my direction, but I had been hiding away. He took a step towards my general location but he stopped. He just looked at me as he went on his way.

"What's wrong Kirito-kun?" I asked as he started walking in the opposite direction. He stopped moving and turned back towards Asuna and me.

"It was nothing, I guess" he said as he looked at me once more. "Shall we continue? You don't seem to be having any trouble here" he said to me.

I nodded and looked in the direction he started walking in, and prayed that Maxis wasn't there. If he was, he would be in danger of being exposed by Kirito, who seemed to know something.

**Author Note**

Sorry that this one took so long to come out, I was rather conflicted on how I should end this chapter, please give me reviews and I may get some new found inspiration for my writing. Thank you for reading.

I'm really sorry that Maxis and Seria had to split up, but they will always find a way to come back to each other.


	6. Unsettling Of The Heart

Puppet Master Chapter 6

Author notes

Sorry this has taken so long to come out, I really didn't want the story to go this way but the story is too far to go back to the beginning now. I'm not too fond of this chapter for some reason; it was just really aggravating to write for some reason.

* * *

I continued to watch as the party that consisted of Kirito, Asuna and Seria defeated all of the monsters in their path. Seria was so graceful but she was unaware of the fact that she had a little assistance; she slices through enemies very quickly with the dagger that I made for her, The 'Blood Rose'.

She was so beautiful in the red cloak that I had made, I made it with the strongest, yet lightest material that I could get, therefore it would protect her a lot more than the little cloak she had on beforehand.

There had been a few times when Kirito would look in my direction, but he would never come and confront me. He knew I was here, I was aware of that fact, it was as if he knew that I would never let her die in such a place.

He was under the impression that I would personally kill her later, it was the most painful lie I had ever told. Just the thought of her being in pain, hurt me more than it should.

Whenever I saw her, I would be mystified by her beauty. It was as if she had stolen a bit of his heart, without her with him, he couldn't be truly happy. He had only briefly felt this way for another young lady.

One of his best friends, she was such a nice person; she was such a miserable person, he hadn't been able to look at her without helping her.

His thoughts drifted back to the present when he heard a scream, he looked over to see Seria. She was surrounded by Goblins; Maxis barely stopped himself from running to her aid. He spread his hands out and put a few strings between the Goblins and her.

Kirito and Asuna both looked to Seria to see if she needed help, but they couldn't get to her in time.

The Goblins attacked but their swords got stuck in my strings. I had woven the strings so that they surrounded the goblins, I had full control of their swords and I pulled with all of my might.

The swords all got knocked out of their hands and I threw them all to the ground. Seria took this chance to slice through all of the Goblins.

Kirito and Asuna had both seen my string mastery; I use the strings to pick up the swords and aimed with perfect marksman ship. I threw all of the swords and they hit the goblins and other mobs that had surrounded them.

I quickly gathered my strings as I thought that they would chase me, I quickly retreated a few steps but didn't hear anything. I turned to see them all just standing around, they all just looked in my direction and didn't care about the monsters around them.

I saw a few monsters running for them, they didn't know about them, so I threw more string everywhere and trapped a few of the monsters. I ran through with lightning quick speed and quickly sliced them all apart with my scythe. I turned and noticed that I was the centre of attention, for monster and player alike.

"I didn't do it for you two" I said to Kirito and Asuna. Seria appeared to be about to say something, I didn't want to know her words because I wasn't sure if I could bear them. "Maxi…" "You deserve better than to die here, I will kill you somewhere nice and pretty, like you" I said as I cut her off.

I turned and ran in the direction they had been heading in and took out as many mobs as I could.

What just happened? I thought to myself. Why would Maxis appear out of nowhere like that?

Kirito moved forward and placed his hand on my back. "I noticed him before; he was throwing those strings any time you were in danger, which is why the monsters would stop for a second before they struck"

I just stood there dumbfounded; he appeared here and faced certain death just so he could save me. It was then that I realised his sentence. "He came to protect me?" I asked aloud.

"What did he mean when he said that you deserve to die in a nice beautiful place?" Asuna asked. "Well, he is trying to kill her; my guess is that he fell in love with her in a sick kind of way" Kirito said.

I choked up at those words. I knew what he meant. If I was going to die, he wanted it to be in a nice way, because that was how he showed his affection.

"I think we may need to be more careful when we are moving through, who knows where he could be hiding. There is a chance that he could attack at any time" Kirito said.

"I don't think he would attack me here, he wants me to die in a nice place so maybe he is one of those players that believe we don't die for real" I said, trying to explain to them that Maxis wouldn't really hurt her. There was actually more of a chance for them to hurt her, then him.

They hadn't followed me? I was sure that Kirito would attack me straight away. I was glad that they hadn't realised the purpose of me saving her. He quickly started laying any of the mobs here, but they spawned soon afterwards. He was flying through levels; he had levelled up two times in the last few hours of fighting here.

He never stopped worrying about Seria though, if they had even an inkling of knowledge that she was a part of Laughing Coffin then she would be in danger.

He kept looking back and wondered how she was doing, if she died, he would kill those two with her. He didn't care if they are two of the strongest players in Aincrad.

He would kill them both because that is all he can do. He wouldn't know of any other way to punish himself for letting her die, he might even commit suicide because he can't imagine a world without her.

He couldn't see her, but he could feel that she was alright. It was more of a gut feeling but he was going to bet on it, she could fight greatly without me helping her.

I was getting some great drops and I should check to see if I can make any new scythes when I get back home. Sadly I knew that Seria wouldn't be there, she would be staying with Kirito and Asuna or some trusted friends of theirs.

That thought sent me into a great fit of rage and I started violently destroying anything that spawned near me. I knew that I had to calm down, but I couldn't. It was getting harder to control my most base instinct.

I saw a shimmer in front of my eyes and I narrowly dodged the scythe that was swung at me. I turned to see a large phantom, even in height to me. It was wearing a large black cloak that covered its face. It held a mighty scythe in its hand. It looked up from under its hood and I saw a large skull with two large white eyes.

It held its scythe with its skeletal arms, above it was the name 'Passive Scythe'. It was quite ironic because if this was passive, I'd hate to see the fatal scythe. I equipped my scythe and ran at it, it parried my strike and knocked me back.

It dragged its scythe across the ground and swung it up at me, I blocked with my scythe, but it broke through and I took a step back. Because my guard was broken, it struck again, quicker this time.

I dodged low and rolled under its scythe, because the scythe was behind me I attacked it. My scythe bounced off of its tattered cloak harmlessly. A little bit of its health went down and I growled. I felt a pain in my eye and jumped up. I narrowly avoided the scythe that it dragged back to itself.

It would swing and I would roll under it and strike the body, damaging it over time. After a couple of minutes of fighting like this, its whole algorithm changed. It would attack in different ways and it would predict what I would do next and attack like that.

The 'passive scythe' was much harder than the usual mobs that I fight, if I was still with Seria I think we would easily be able to take it out. He swung his scythe quickly and it picked up speed, I did the same and we both use the skill 'Harvest'.

We pick up speed and when we are fast enough we both lunged forward still spinning the scythe. Because we had used the same skill every move was parried and countered quickly.

We both got knocked back but I recovered quicker then it and sliced its head off. Its head hit the floor, turned towards me, grumbled at me and shattered into millions of pixels.

I levelled up again as I got the item 'Vengeful soul'. It seems that the 'Passive Scythe' was a monster that only appeared near red players.

I continued running through the dungeon and I found a large door. This was the boss room that everyone had been looking for. I had been mapping out the area and had mapped exactly how to get there from the main entrance.

I started returning to the entrance and was about hallway back. I was going to give the information to Argo but I saw a group that was fighting a big battle. They seemed to be losing and were being beaten back by the monsters.

I got cocky because I was clearing out all of the mobs alone that I jumped in, I quickly defeated all of the mobs. I was going to walk off and leave them alone when one of them stopped me.

"Thank you for the help stranger. I haven't seen you before, are you new to clearing?" he asked. The three behind him nodded. "Yeah, I was on my way back to town when I saw your party under attack" I said back to him.

"Why are you going back, there is still time to look for the boss room" he said, sounding a little annoyed. "I just found the boss room; here you can have the data. Tell everyone when you get out" I said as I gave him the map data.

"Why don't you let them know?" one of the others asked me. "I don't like being the centre of attention. It just makes me feel odd" I said as I started walking away.

"Thanks" they all called out behind me. I just waved at them and continued walking away.

I continued walking before I stopped and thought to myself. Why did I even help them, because that was what I undoubtedly did? I didn't need to help them, I could have just watched as they were massacred and killed the mobs after that.

It couldn't be that I didn't want the attention that I would attain from spreading the news; I would have just given the news to Argo and been on my way home.

I think that I have changed in a bad way; I'm becoming less like I was before. I don't like how I have changed; I'm becoming less unique, less myself. In a world where I can do anything and not get into any true trouble, I was anything I wanted to be.

I was disturbed by the thought that I helped them for no reason, I guess it was the same with Nishida-san though. I saved him from a monster fish that he had caught, he taught me how to fish in this world, and that's how I accidently learned of the string trick.

I had finally made it to the entrance and left the dungeon, I was walking down one of the forest paths that connected the dungeon to the city. I felt a tingling in my spine and quickly dodged to the left.

Where I was just standing was a rather large throwing knife. I turned to see a group of players behind me. They were all red players; they had all drawn their weapons, five people all up.

Two large men with heavy black plate armour wielding axes and a large black shield, two spearmen wearing black and in the middle of them was a young girl with light black armour, a sword and no shield, she had a few little throwing knives on her persons as well.

"Ah the oh so famous red guild 'Undertakers' it's quite a pleasure to make your acquaintance" I said as I bowed low.

The girl, who I assumed was the leader simply smiled cruelly "The pleasure is all our 'Puppet Master', we have been tailing you for ages and we were quite surprised when you helped the group back there" she said.

I ground my teeth in anger; I didn't want anyone to know that I wasn't such a good person. "It seems like it's not your lucky day, I have been meaning to kill some worthless people and you just so happened to show up" I said as I grabbed my scythe.

"You think you can take us?" one of the large armoured players said. I simply nodded before I sprinted behind him, I swung my scythe but he ducked under it and spun quickly while wielding his axe.

He swung for my stomach but I jumped and landed on top of the axe, I rode the axe as he had swung around fully. I saw the other axemen was swinging his axe over his party members. I bent backwards and narrowly avoided the axe.

"That was rather close, don't you think?" I said to the axemen before I flipped over the one to strike first and swung my scythe at his head.

He quickly raised his shield and blocked my strike. I was knocked back from the impact and saw the two spearmen stab at me. I ducked below the spears and heard a growl from above me.

I looked up and saw the girl falling towards me with her sword pointed down at me. It was truly a good combo that they had but sadly I was getting bored.

I spread my hands and covered the two tanks in string and made a small hammock that would protect me from the leader that was about to strike. She landed on the hammock and her sword stabbed through it, I had predicted as such and had swung my scythe around quickly and shattered her sword.

I rolled out from under the hammock and saw the two spearmen running at my side and thrust their spears at me, I dodged between the two spears and grabbed the spears, I continued to move them forward and stab at each other.

The two spearmen jumped back as they had been dealt sufficient damage and the tanks rushed in. They both swung their axes at me but I jumped between them. As I jumped through them a throwing knife came through and hit me in the shoulder.

I fell to the ground as my momentum had been lost and saw the leader, walking towards me with a contemptuous smile on her face. She pulled out another knife and dug it into my other shoulder.

"Not so quick now are you?" she asked angrily, she grabbed me by the coat and lifted me so that she could look into my eyes. She slowly brushed the black hair from my face as she moved her hand to grip me under the chin.

"How are you going to pay for my sword?" she asked as she looked me over. "From the way you look, you don't seem to have any money. Maybe I should just kill you and save myself the trouble" she said as she squeezed my chin painfully.

"Maybe you should go to hell" Maxis said with a grin, he still held the grin when her companions had impaled his legs with their spears.

The leader got in real close to my face "How long will you be grinning for when we bring you to our base?" she said with a genuine smile, as if the mere thought pleased her greatly.

"Do what you want" he said as his vision started to go blurry.

* * *

Author notes.

I thought I would make my own red guild; they are only second to laughing coffin. Sorry this has taken so long to come out, I have been less motivated because I have been busy with school work and the like, also I might be more motivated if I got some reviews from anyone. (Not trying to sound angry or anything, more lonely actually). Also you will get to learn more about what Maxis and Seria were like before they had been taken into this death game.


End file.
